Layers of the Earth
What is the outermost layer of the Earth called?
Crust
Who developed the Theory of Plate Tectonics?
Alfred Wegener
How many pieces of seismometer data do you need to determine the location of an Earthquake's epicentre?
Three
What is an example of the San Andreas Fault in California?
Transform Plate Boundary
The Earth's _________ is divided into seven main slabs called tectonic plates
Lithosphere
What does the lithosphere contain?
The crust and the upper mantle
What is a plate boundary?
The borders of a tectonic plate, where two plates meet.
What causes an earthquake?
Movement along a fault line. Friction causes energy to build up, until there is a sudden slip and energy is released as seismic waves.
In what three places can volcanoes be formed?
Convergent boundaries
Divergent boundaries
Over hot spots
The Theory of Continental Drift states that the continents are moving and were once connected as one supercontinent. What name do we give this supercontinent? Bonus points: What name is given to the two continents that it first divided into .
Pangea
Gondwana and Laurasia
Which layer of the Earth contains the asthenosphere?
Mantle
What causes tectonic plates to move?
Convection currents (moving magma in the mantle, due to rising hotter magma and sinking cooler magma).
What is a fault?
A fracture in the Earth's crust.
What is magma and what is lava?
Magma is molten (melted) rock. Lava is magma that has reached the Earth's surface
What is it called when one plate slides under another plate?
Bonus points: Which plate slides underneath and why?
Subduction
Whichever one is more dense = oceanic
What is the state and composition of the outer core?
Liquid iron and nickel
What are the three types, and describe their movement.
Convergent - plates moving together
Divergent - plates moving apart
Transform - plates moving past each other
List three ways in which earthquakes can impact the biosphere or lithosphere.
Lithosphere - Landslide, avalanche, land ruptures.
Biosphere - loss of animal habitat, loss of animal/human life.
Describe how a volcanic eruption can negatively impact Earth's atmosphere and hydrosphere.
Release toxic gases and ash into the air. This can cause acid rain as the gases dissolve into the water/rain.
Name the three types of seismic waves and the order in which they are detected.
Primary waves, secondary waves, surface waves.
What is the main source of heat in Earth's inner core?
Radioactive decay
Since the Theory of Continental Drift was developed, what more information do we know about, now called the Theory of Plate Tectonics?
It is not the continents that are moving, but the plates which continents AND oceans sit on top of
Compare the focus and the epicentre.
The focus is the point along a fault where movement occurs, and it is the origin of seismic waves (an earthquake).
Epicentre is the point on the Earth's surface directly above the focus.
What is an elevated region with a central valley on an ocean floor at the boundary between two diverging plates
Mid ocean ridge
In regards to measuring earthquakes, what is the difference between magnitude and intensity?
Bonus points: Name three things that can impact the intensity of an earthquake.
Magnitude is the amount of energy that is released in an earthquake - measured on the Richter scale.
Intensity is the impact the earthquake had. This can depend on where the earthquake occurred, population density, infrastructure, and depth of earthquake.